The Tribune

In response to recent restrictions on public gatherings, including the duration and numbers at religious services due to the increase in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd counselled cooperation. He touted the Church’s promotion of personal responsibility and the common good.

The Anglican prelate’s judicious and calm remarks were in contrast to a number of other religionists and pastors, who reliably spin out of ecclesiastical control, fulminating and fuming with little common sense and reason.

While a few church leaders reasonably encouraged dialogue on the time and numerical restrictions, a number of pastors threw temper tantrums, behaving as if the state had little to no right or responsibility to require such restrictions to protect public health.

The brouhaha about church hours came in the aftermath of a youth convention at the Church of God. As reported in The Nassau Guardian: “Multiple members of the Church of God have died or been hospitalised with COVID-19 since a youth convention held early last month.”

The journal further reported: “Photos from the convention show scores of congregants packed inside the church auditorium. While many wore masks that covered their noses and mouths, others wore ill-fitting masks with their noses exposed or had the masks under their chins.

“Members of the choir, band, liturgical dancers and speakers also did not wear masks during the convention. The event was held as COVID cases in The Bahamas were rising.”

Throughout the pandemic, a number of pastors and church leaders have acted responsibly and with a duty of care toward their congregants and the greater public good. These churches have diligently and strenuously enforced and abided by life-saving protocols.

But some religious figures have acted with a deadly combination of fatalism, predestination and magical thinking. A few have asininely labelled various necessary restrictions as an assault on religious liberties.

Others have demonstrated a defiance of science and a disregard of measures to protect lives. The arrogance of some church leaders has been spectacular, with some seemingly believing that God is forwarding WhatsApp messages throughout the day, giving them direct and specific instructions and near entire sermons.

One pastor, not known for his intellectual acumen, posted: “Daniel taught us that sometimes civil compliance may invoke divine defiance.” And: “When Daniel was asked to forsake the laws of God for the laws of man, he simply stood by the ‘Open Window’ so that all could see clearly the choice he made.”

What stunning arrogance and theological hubris to cast oneself as Daniel and to believe that one’s narrow views are directly from a divine source. The individual who wrote this might apply greater humility.

Arrogance

Many of us have reflected on Daniel. The gentleman in question is no Daniel, neither in terms of prophecy nor wisdom nor understanding and learning. There is a quality of religious arrogance in the land, reminiscent of a woman overseas who claimed earlier in the pandemic: “You can’t catch COVID in the house of God.”

Is God a plaything who is supposed to perform a miracle to save us from our own stupidity, ignorance and arrogance? This borders on being blasphemous and contemptuous of the Divine.

Many of the churches in The Bahamas have scant traditions of reason and scholarship, relying instead on the anti-intellectual fundamentalist screeds of pastors preaching self-aggrandisement, self-help gobbledygook and proof-texted sermons.

Thankfully, there are leaders like Bishop Boyd, a man of integrity and faith, who seeks to lead by example and by careful preaching and explication of Biblical principles. In response to the recent restrictions, the Bishop noted in an Eyewitness News story: “I think the church has to participate in and respect all of the restrictions that the rest of society is being asked to observe. Nobody likes restrictions, but the current worsening state of the landscape is clear.

“We see the numbers rising, daily numbers increasing, younger people dying and our healthcare facilities are full, so that’s really a serious state of affairs. I personally think that one of the biggest problems is that people need to take personal responsibility and there isn’t enough of that.”

He pressed: “And so, while we don’t like further restrictions, I think all of us need to work on limiting our activity and I think the restrictions need to extend to every area of our lives.

“So, I think the church has to participate in and respect all of the restrictions that the rest of society is being asked to observe. We have to lead the way in modelling those things because it is all a matter of good stewardship.”

Bishop Boyd appreciates the division between Church and State and the nature of religious freedom and pluralism in a democratic society. Sadly, a choir of confused clerics in a good number of other church groups clearly does not enjoy a basic understanding of such principles.

By example, we are constitutionally a secular state. The preamble to the Constitution has a Christian reference. But the preamble has no legal force. It is not dispositive in deciding constitutional questions.

Chapter I Article 1 of the Constitution does have legal force. It states: “The Commonwealth of the Bahamas shall be a sovereign democratic State.” Not a theocracy, not a Christian state, but a democracy.

Ours is a secular state with a Constitution dedicated to protecting certain fundamental rights and freedoms, not a theocratic state in which the doctrines of any religion or denomination reign supreme in adjudicating constitutional matters. Our freedoms come with provisos to protect public order and health.

The Constitution does not protect or advance any notion of Christendom, in which Christianity is the state religion, nor does it grant any religion the right to force its doctrines or force its will on other citizens.

SECULAR

As a secular state we enjoy freedom of expression and conscience. Again, the Bahamian Constitution is not a Christian charter. It is not based on Christian Scripture or the doctrines of any religion.

We continue to debate the scope of pluralism in the 21st century. The contours of the debate are centuries old and thoroughly modern.

In parts of the Islamic world, mostly in the Middle East and in Africa, pluralism is anathema to the restricted world views of those who contest the notion of a secular state and religious pluralism.

Yet, even in the West, including at home, there are fundamentalist, mostly Protestant voices, who contest or are uncomfortable with a secular state and various forms of pluralism.

Fr Bryan Hehir is one the world’s leading experts on Catholic Social Thought.

In a presentation entitled, “Catholic Social Teaching: A Key to Catholic Identity”, the Office for Social Justice of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, based on remarks by Fr Hehir, notes, “three significant statements about politics” in the Declaration on Religious Liberty.

The presentation observes:

“1. The Church accepts religious pluralism in a society as a given.

“2. The Church accepts the secularity of the state.

“3. The only thing the Church asks of the political order is the freedom to function, not favouritism but the freedom to function. The Church wants neither favouritism nor discrimination in the exercise of its public social and religious role.

“Therefore, we are not excluded from the debate because we are religious. On the other hand, we are not to be given any special treatment because we are religious.”

In significant ways, many fundamentalist Protestants in The Bahamas have not intellectually come to terms with some of the basics of a modern pluralistic democracy. Some are stuck in pre-Enlightenment mindsets.

Many of these churches crave favouritism, have difficulty accepting the secularity of the state, and believe the state should enforce their doctrines. Certain Bahamian churches and church leaders have fallen into bed as the handmaidens of various Caesars and political leaders.

Many of these relationships are permissive, with various church leaders seeking state power, appointments, influence and handouts like the power-hungry and avaricious religious high priests of ancient times and the moneygrubbers in the Temple.

In addition to separation of church and state, there often hasn’t even been reasonable distance by those pastors who conflate the state, the Kingdom of God, and their own temporal kingdoms with all the requisite trappings of luxury in the interest of self-aggrandisement and self-promotion.

Many religious fundamentalists share a common agenda: discomfort or hostility toward pluralism and varying degrees of male supremacy and sexism.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to reveal in great relief various mindsets and world views. This includes religious leaders who cooperate in the promotion of the common good, such as Bishop Boyd.

It also includes those who mostly act myopically in the promotion of their own needs and private goods, often dismissive of the greater human and national good. They often act more out of self-glory than they do for the greater glory of God. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.